You can't approach everything the same way

Sometimes, teaching your children is really about teaching yourself. Jake, my 9 year old, is having problems at school. Social Studies is eating his lunch. He does fine with every other subject, but not Social Studies. He says he is trying, and I think he is, but it isn't paying off. He just isn't making any headway.

I just got finished telling him that he has to try different ways of studying so that he can find the right answer. What works in one subject just isn't working with this one. He has to keep trying until he finds the right answer. That means more work and more focus. There isn't really any other way.

How many times in life is this true? What is working for us in other areas just isn't getting it done in another area. But many times we just keep trying the same methods and we don't understand that these methods have to change. We have to try other things, new ways of finding success. We have to work harder, and smarter, until we find the right approach.